Drew Barrymore Admits She Was in a “Dark and Fearful Place” After Her Third Divorce

Life hasn’t been entirely easy for Drew Barrymore since the dissolution of her third marriage. In fact, the 43-year-old actress has credited her new TV show Santa Clarita Diet for helping her through a “very dark and fearful place” following her divorce from Will Kopelman.

“I was not looking for a job. I had actually stopped acting for several years because I wanted to raise my [daughters Olive, 5, and Frankie, 3]. But then a shift happened in my life and I was separating from their father and it was just a very difficult time,” she told NBC star Willie Geist during a new interview for Sunday Today.

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“I definitely personally was in a very dark and fearful place and then this script came along and I was like, ‘Yeah I don’t think this is a good time’ and ironically, I think it taught me a valuable life lesson,” Drew continued. “Sometimes when you think something is the worst timing and the worst idea, it can actually become the thing that saves you and pulls you out and gives you a new focus, and empowerment, and switches your constant stuck way of thinking and feeling and [puts] it into something else that might actually get you to a healthier place faster.”

Today, Drew and Will remain close and amicably co-parent their two daughters. However, the actress has admitted divorcing her third husband was her “worst nightmare” and something she never expected to go through. “[Divorce] was just like my worst nightmare. I so wanted to raise kids in this ultra-traditional way and do everything so the polar opposite of my experience,” she once said.

Now, the proud mom-of-two is focusing on raising her kids in a “modern family” and focusing on her Hollywood work. “[My kids] know I’ve got them and their dad’s got them and Grammy and Poppy… like their cousins and [Will’s sister, Jill Kargman],” she said in a past interview. “And we do it, you know, in a way that I think a lot of other people are probably doing it too. And sometimes again, the road is different than what you try to make it or what you expected and you just figure it out, and you figure it out with grace.”